China: Healthcare

A woman has an eye exam before waiting for a surgery from Wang Xinmin. Today, at age 37, Wang Xinmin is one of Chinaís most prolific cataract surgeons; performing about 1,500 procedures a year on the fringes of a healthcare system that he says still often hinders doctors with ambition. Exhausted with the politics and corruption in Chinaís health care system Wang Xinmin has set out on his own personal mission to cure blindness in some of Chinaís poorest regions. Today in...more »

A woman has an eye exam before waiting for a surgery from Wang Xinmin. Today, at age 37, Wang Xinmin is one of Chinaís most prolific cataract surgeons; performing about 1,500 procedures a year on the fringes of a healthcare system that he says still often hinders doctors with ambition. Exhausted with the politics and corruption in Chinaís health care system Wang Xinmin has set out on his own personal mission to cure blindness in some of Chinaís poorest regions. Today in Luxi, a poor farming community, he completed 30-cataract surgeries on poor farmers who are unable to afford urban medical care. In 2004 China only treated 580,000 cataract patients compared to an estimated 4 million in India.« less